Our Year - 2009 - Johnathan

Johnathan - 16

According to last years Xmas letter…

I was a traveling Durbin during the summer of 08…well…not summer 09…my brothers went places, but not me…thankfully, it left more room for establishing my career. Yup, still writing. I doubt I’ll stop.

During the summer I wrote quite a bit on what has now become thirty-two different plotlines for thirty-two different novels. My top ‘projects’ are The Tribes (which used to be the Tales of Africa series…the idea for TOA just didn’t get off the ground and I’m cutting that idea and turning into The Tribes, (a fantasy that has symbolic references to heaven, hell, and sin), The Jabburwalkie Chronicles (A four book fantasy/action/adventure/slasher/horror series), The Shadows Trilogy (three books dubbed Nowhere, Libertine, and Silent Watcher…the trilogy is sort of realistic fiction and slightly dark romantic) and a World War I and World War II novel (WWI called The Eyes of War, WWII called The Penitent Man). As my mother said, when she wrote my section of the Christmas letter last year, each of these involve history (with the exception of The Tribes, all of which is completely made up), Fantasy (with the exception of the WWI/WWII novels) and wicked battle scenes (which none are without), along with some romance, horror, scary images and comic relief (no matter what anybody says, there are always ironic/funny/happy moments in ones life, and I’d rather not pursue a storyline without any kind of comedic flare!).

As for theatrics, I was in three different shows this year. The first I played the sexy singing all-star basketball player named Troy Bolton in CYT’s High School Musical: On Stage! This included seventy-five lines, forty-five solo or duet lines and a stage kiss at the very end. No complaints on the kiss, but I’d rather not kiss for the stage again.

The second show was CYT’s The Jungle Book where, instead of playing a comedic hero, I played the dramatic and scary villain Shere Kahn. This was by far my best acting performance, mainly owing to the fact that my growl literally scared a few people out of the theatre.

Lastly, I played Corey the Chorus Member, a name I made up in the chorus, for MVHS’s version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. One of my goals for being a chorus member is to make the director regret ever even considering putting me there…I believe I more then succeeded at this feat and I hope to get cast in more MVHS shows, as I highly doubt that I will ever return to CYT to do another show.

As for my education, I’m am now a real Teenager…meaning, I don’t know where to go for college…I’m either going to UNC or UCD, and I plan to major in journalism and creative writing…

My interests include the Detroit Lions (they won a few this year…I still won’t say never in terms of a Super Bowl win), World War II (which continues to be a fascinating subject), Video Games (Call of Duty makes good WWII Weapons research), writing (that interest will be a constant throughout my life) and my crushes…(lets just say…I’m a teenager who has one too many fantasies about his love life…)